Lawmaker outlines bills that would seek to reduce health-care rules

TALLAHASSEE – Before a hospital commission Wednesday, state Rep. Jason Brodeur outlined a series of bills backed by a cadre of House GOP leaders that seek to make it easier for other health-care providers to compete with hospitals.

The bills allow ambulatory surgery centers to perform more procedures, registered nurses to provide more services without physician oversight and make it easier for patients to see the average costs of different procedures at different health care providers.

Brodeur believes the bills will introduce more competition to the health care sector, lowering overall costs. He defended ambulatory surgical centers and recovery centers as cheaper alternatives to hospitals.

"This isn't a mobile van pulling up and saying you can recover here. These are well regulated, well established recovery centers," said Brodeur, R-Sanford.

Brodeur acknowledged hospitals are opposed to many of the bills. At ambulatory surgical centers, for example, hospitals contend they receive more complex cases and procedures that drive up their average costs per procedure.

In addition, Scott's Agency for Health Care Administration is auditing 31 hospitals whose Medicaid contracts are suspected of being 120 percent above the standard rate without state approval. No Orlando-area hospitals are targeted in the audit.

Lawmakers needed a special session in June to resolve the budget crisis, as GOP Senate leaders initially insisted on expanding health coverage through federal Medicaid funds, which House Republicans opposed.

The budget battle over health care and Medicaid is likely to return next year. State economists released new cost projections showing Medicaid increasing by $1.3 billion next year, to $24.8 billion, with $500 million coming from state taxpayers.